George Galamaz incident
In what would later become known as the George Galamaz incident, on Saturday 1 December 2012, Durley Chine played Oakwood Rovers in a 2012–13 Premiership season league game at the Island Boulevard Ground. The game was abandoned after 44 minutes of play, which the score at 2–0 to the Rovers, due to crowd disorder. The Leeds Football Association decided against replaying the game, awarding Oakwood Rovers a 3–0 win by default instead. Background The game with increased hostility at the Island Boulevard Ground by Durley Chine. After their worst start to a season in 49 years, they were languishing at the bottom of the league with just six points from fifteen games. The game started with a quick goal from Oakwood Rovers, which lead to Durley Chine fans booing and chanting "we want our club back, we want our cluuuuuuub back! GJ has lost it, we waaant it back!" and "Johnson out! Johnson out! Johnson out! Johnson out!", suggesting rather blatantly that they want underperforming manager Greg Johnson to resign or be sacked. Uplifted Oakwood fans began to chant "your ground's too big for you" repeatedly to the Durley Chine fans, referring to the 30,000+ empty seats in the home section of the 52,500-capacity Island Boulevard Ground. You'd be correct to say that these chants weren't exactly met with the nicest welcoming by Durley Chine fans, who threw objects into the Oakwood Rovers away section for around five minutes. Incident 42 minutes into the first half, with Oakwood Rovers leading 1–0, Oakwood were awarded a controversial penalty by the referee, after a Durley Chine player appeared to commit a handball offence to clear the ball out of the area, preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity for the Rovers. However, replays shown on live TV showed that the Durley Chine player actually headed it clear, and the incident did not warrant a penalty. Just as Oakwood prepared to take the penalty, three Durley Chine fans ran on to the pitch; two were stopped by security, but one got past them. The breakaway hooligan, named later as Aaron Roberts, ran up to Oakwood defender George Galamaz from behind and punched him in the side of the face. Galamaz was knocked to the floor and suffered serious facial injuries, including a broken zygotic bone in his ear, causing him to go temporarily deaf in one ear. He also broke his right cheekbone, and suffered bruising, a black eye, and shock. Galamaz was treated on the pitch before being helped off by club medical staff, and he was substituted. Meanwhile, Roberts continued running across the pitch. He was intercepted by Oakwood defender Novak Martinović, who launched himself at Roberts to try and stop his run. Both Roberts and Martinović were decked, and other Oakwood players surrounded Roberts. Both Martinović and Oakwood goalkeeper Razvan Stanca kicked Roberts while he was down on the ground in a sort of brawl, before several Oakwood players ran off of the substitutes' bench to assist in the operation. Florin Costea, an Oakwood substitute, grabbed Roberts and pulled him up, before teammates held Roberts back as security and police ran on the pitch to arrest him. Roberts was led off of the pitch by police, and was reportedly hit by objects thrown from the understandably angry Rovers crowd. Meanwhile, players, medical staff, and security chatted on the pitch as Galamaz was treated for his injuries. Galamaz was replaced, and around ten minutes later, play was ready to restart. However, before it did, the referee booked Florin Costea and sent off Novak Martinović and Razvan Stanca for violent conduct as a result of their roles in the brawl with Roberts. Although technically the right decision by the referee according to the official football rulebooks, Oakwood fans booed and chanted "you don't know what you're doing" and "we always get crap refs" repeatedly. Play resumed, and Oakwood scored the long-delayed penalty to go 2–0 up. However, just minutes later, Oakwood's substitute goalkeeper Paul Haye was struck in the back and side by a flare thrown from the Durley Chine fans behind him. Haye was treated for severe burns to his back. After a quick discussion with security staff, the referee decided to abandon the game due to crowd disorder. Aftermath Instead of simply replaying the match soon afterwards as is done most of the time in the case of abandoned games, the Leeds Football Association awarded a 3–0 victory to Oakwood Rovers by default following the abandonment of the game after 44 minutes. This was due to the crowd disorder that forced the ending of the game being caused by Durley Chine fans. Durley Chine Football Club were lated fined £100,000 by the LFA and ordered to play their next five home games behind closed doors, meaning no fans at all would be allowed to attend as a punishment. This would start with the game against Cola Hills on 8 December 2012 and end with the game against Leeds Friday on 23 February 2013. Match report Durley Chine A–A Oakwood Rovers Match abandoned after 44 minutes due to crowd disorder with score at 0–2; Oakwood Rovers awarded 3–0 win Match attendance: 18,942 (inc. 7,928 away supporters)